


My whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water

by ADyingFlower



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, Body Horror, Coming of Age, Dark Lance (Voltron), Emotional Manipulation, Gen, Ghost Lance (Voltron), Grief/Mourning, Kid Keith (Voltron), Sibling Rivalry, Supernatural Elements, Unhealthy Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-06-09
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:41:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24612451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ADyingFlower/pseuds/ADyingFlower
Summary: “Hello,” the boy calls out to him. “Won’t you be my friend?”Keith shivers.(Grieving his father's death and his mother's sudden remarriage, nine year old Keith makes a new friend in a strange boy named Lance, who is as eager to play games with Keith as he is to keep him forever.)
Relationships: Keith & Lance (Voltron), Keith & Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 20
Kudos: 117





	My whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on a roll for posting dark short one-shots, lol. I wrote this in one sitting, be warned. Also been really in a mood for Kid!Keith, might be because I'm still emotional over Music Box haha. 
> 
> Note, Keith is processing some pretty heavy grief and trauma throughout the fic, so sometimes his actions may seem to make him younger than he actually is. I also want to say that a lot of characters in this fic are going through grief, though that doesn't always justify their actions.

Keith doesn’t like his new house. 

He doesn’t like his new house, and his new step-dad, and his new step-brother. Mama told him over and over again that she was happy the way they were, but then she met Daiki and suddenly Keith just wasn’t good enough for her. Jeannie from karate told him that her Daddy never watches any of her tournaments after he started sucking faces with their secretary, and Keith hates the idea of Mama being the same. She _always_ comes to his tournaments. 

The new house creaks around him as he shifts in the fort he made in with his blankets and every pillow he could find in the house. A sheet blocks the entrance from intruders, while he rereads his favorite novel on his stomach, legs kicking in the air behind him. 

_“Corduroy is a bear who once lived in the toy department of a big store._ ” He reads aloud quietly, tracing the pages with his flashlight. “ _Day after day he waited with all the other animals and dolls for someone to come along and take him home -_ ”

His door slams open, and his new step-brother rips open the sheet without a care or waiting for Keith’s permission like the rude jerk he is. “Dude, c’mon the rest of us need pillows too!” He’s already reaching for a one of them, and Keith snarls. 

“No!” Keith throws himself in front of them protectively. “I need them!” 

Shiro raises an eyebrow. “You don’t _need_ them.” 

If he could stomp his foot, he would. But he’s half sitting up, so he settles for growling and baring his teeth. “Yes I do! It’s not a pillow fort without pillows.” Like c’mon, that’s obvious! 

“Well I’m taking a nap,” Shiro narrows his eyes. “So suck it up, buttercup.” 

With that, he shoves Keith over and takes the striped ones lining the wall. Keith manages half a screech of dismay, scrambling to try and fix it, but it’s too late. The entire pillow fort shakes, before the corner collapses in on itself, the blanket roof burying Keith underneath it. 

There’s silence for a moment, before Shiro starts to laugh at him. The stab of hurt in his stomach makes his throat burn even as he struggles out of the destroyed fort, hissing and clawing at his step-brother, getting a yelp in return when his fingernails leave red lines down his arm. 

“Who raised you? Animals?” Shiro scoffs, and Keith hides his tears by snapping his teeth dangerously near his fingers. “Jeez, I get it! Seriously, what kind of kid did Dad take in…” He mutters as he leaves the room, and Keith shakes himself free from the fort. 

He doesn’t like his new house, and his new step-dad, and his new step-brother. 

Keith wants to go back to their apartment in the city, where Mama worked nights and Papa worked days but they had afternoons together to cook dinner and go to Keith’s tournaments and play with him at the playground across the street and do his homework with him. But Papa didn’t come home from work one day, and Mama’s always too busy for him nowadays with her new husband and son. 

Blinking back a fresh wave of tears, he ignores the destroyed fort in the corner as he wedges up his window, climbing up on the windowsill and eyeing the drop down. He’s only in the first story, but they have some foundation and a little crawl space underneath the rickety house, so it’s farther than he thought it would be. 

He closes his eyes and takes the plunge. 

Landing harshly, his breath goes out of him as his feet sting horribly, like they’ve been stung by bees and not the grass underneath him. But his eyes are dry now, and after a moment he stands back up and takes off towards the treeline surrounding their massive backyard, ducking his head underneath a tree branch.

He doesn’t look back once, but if he did, he might have seen the dozens of mud-caked footprints hidden by the thick ferns and bushes protecting them from the rain and the wind. 

But he doesn’t, so Keith keeps running blindly into the woods, until his side aches and his feet are sore. Stumbling against a tree, he shallowly gasps for air, lifting his head up as the breeze blows fresh air and the tang of something overripe. 

In front of him is a large clearing, with a dark blue lake taking up most of the room. On the other side of it is what looks like a small fishing hut from when Papa used to take Keith along on his Sunday trips with his friends, though he always found them boring and usually played in the water instead, and a dirt road heading away from it. 

He’s half curious to follow the road, because if Mama found out he went swimming without her he would get in _big_ trouble, but he stops at the sound of someone giggling. 

Someone his age. 

Peeking his head around the trunk of the tree, Keith’s eyes widen as he meets a smiling shade of blue. 

“Hello,” the boy calls out to him. “Won’t you be my friend?”

Keith shivers.

* * *

The boy’s name is Lance, and he’s the coolest person ever. 

Keith doesn’t know how to swim, so he stays near the treeline as Lance skips around in the shallows with his shorts bundled up his small hands, looking for all the world like a water fairy. Maybe he _is_ a real water fairy!

“I just moved here,” Keith explains shyly, pointing to the way behind him. “The house with the big red roof.” 

Lance tilts his head to the side, blinking. “I don’t know where that is,” Lance shrugs off easily, kicking a giant wave of water towards the sun low in the sky. “I live here.” 

“Here?” Keith inches closer, hesitantly taking a step towards him. Lance smiles, and Keith smiles back slowly as he feels a chill run down his back. 

Lance throws out his arms, his shorts falling down his legs and trailing into the water. “Right here. This is my lake, you know; you’re the first visitor I’ve had for years.”

That seems…sad. “Oh. Where’s your Mom and Dad?”

Lance shrugs again, not saying a word for a long moment as he swings his arms behind his back. “Mami’s probably making dinner right now, and Papi’s working at the docks.” He finally explains, but the words seem hollow. Lifeless. But then he brightens up, smiling like the sun at Keith. “They’re busy right now, but that’s okay! I have you as a friend.” 

Keith flinches, face heating up at the thought. “We’re friends? Really?”

His new friend nods his head eagerly. “Really really!” He makes a crossing motion over his heart. “We’re gonna be best friends, I just know it!” 

Friends…friends…friends! He has a friend! 

Smiling, he takes another step closer to the water, his entire body shaking from the cold he couldn't feel. Lance’s grin grows wider. “You’re…you’re my first friend.” 

Lance’s grin slides off his face. His eyes grow big, and his mouth gently parts. “…huh.” He says quietly, almost to himself. “You’re…you’re my first friend too.” 

Keith tries a smile, his shoulder slowly inching their way down from his ears. “Maybe we could play hide and seek? Oh, or tag! I could run back to the house and bring back a ball -” 

A giggle cuts him off, but Keith doesn’t mind, especially when his own shivering finally comes to a stop. “That sounds really fun,” Lance promises, folding his hands softly in front of him. “But it’s getting late now, and the woods aren’t safe at night.” 

“From what?” He asks curiously. 

“Oh,” Lance says cheerfully, swaying back and forth in the water. Yet the liquid stays still around him, the lake’s surface a looking glass. But Keith never particularly liked Alice in Wonderland. “From things much scarier than me. Run along now, little boy.” 

Keith nods slowly, waving shyly as he retreats back to the treeline. Lance waves back from the stillness of the water, smiling with his eyes closed, and even when Keith can’t see him anymore, he’s certain that Lance is still there, standing in the water and watching Keith trek back home in the pounding silence of the woods. 

“You seem happy,” Mama says at dinner, after she’s been talking to Shiro and Daiki for most of the meal. 

He hums, kicking his legs back and forth as he bites down on his fork. “Mmh!” 

Mama’s face softens. “I’m glad you and Takashi are finally getting along. I knew you two just needed to talk to each other.” 

Keith stops chewing, staring down at his plate. That’s what she’s happy about? Not that Keith might have made friends, but that he got along with his step-brother? Is it really so weird to think that Keith can’t make friends? 

He pushes away from the table. “‘M not hungry anymore.” He stomps away back towards his room, keeping his eyes stubbornly away from the ruined mess of pillows and blankets as he crawls into bed, yanking his comforter over his head. 

At least he still has Lance. 

* * *

The next morning, while Shiro’s supposed to be watching him but instead told him to watch some TV before shutting himself in his room to talk to his friends, Keith sneaks out through the back slider, eagerly retracing his steps back towards the lake. 

“Lance!” He yells excitably, breaking through the treeline with his arms pinwheeling above his head. “I came back!” 

His new friend glances up from where he’s crouched down watching tadpoles swim around his legs, beaming at the sight of Keith skipping his way over. “You came back.” Lance chirps cheerfully, standing up and brushing his shorts off. “I missed you.” 

Keith toes out of his sneakers and socks, leaving them on the shoreline as he splashes over to where Lance is standing in the ankle-length water. “I missed you too! Sorry I couldn’t come earlier, Daiki made me eat breakfast.” Keith doesn't like to eat much anymore, but Daiki and Mama yell at him if he can't finish his food on his place. Papa never yelled at him, Papa would ask if he had a stomach ache and let him cuddle into his side and watch whatever he wanted on the TV. 

Lance shrugs, gliding towards him and gently taking his hands in his, his cold thumb rubbing against the back of Keith’s warm hands. “That’s fine,” he says softly, like waves breaking against the shore. “What do you want to play today?” 

“Um,” Keith pinks slightly in embarrassment, shuffling his feet in the water. It creates small ripples that Lance watches impassibly. “Hide and seek?” 

Lance lifts his head up to stare at him for a long moment, his eyes like frozen embers, before tilting his lips up in another smile. “Sure! I’ll be it.” 

* * *

Mama runs into trouble with the school getting Keith signed up for classes, so Thanksgiving break blurs into another week, and then two weeks, edging into three before Mama throws up her hands and decides to ‘homeschool’ them until after winter break. 

He doesn’t mind; he never gets along with his classmates anyhow. And besides, it just means he can take his worksheets down to the lake and do them on the shore while Lance helps him, their hips pressed together while their bare feet dip into the cool water. 

Despite there being the remains of snow on the ground, edged with dirt and mud and leaves, once Keith steps through the treeline, the entire clearing is as warm as a summer afternoon. Keith asks Lance about it once, and Lance just smiles and presses their forearms together, saying nothing. 

“How old are you anyhow?” Keith asks another time when Lance magically knows every answer on his worksheet, the other boy eager to finish the 'boring' work and go back to playing as soon as possible. 

Lance's face freezes, and Keith feels another shiver wrack up his back. But as soon as it happens, it's gone and Lance is leaning into his side with another smile playing around his mouth. “The same age as you.” 

Keith brightens up. “Really! That's so cool, I just turned nine back in October.” He knocks their ankles together lightly. “You look a bit older than me, though.” 

“I suppose I am a bit older than you,” Lance grins, tickling his side viciously. “More than you think, anyhow.” 

* * *

Keith hops in place excitably, his sweat soaked ponytail loosening around his shoulders as the rest of the kids run to the parents. The small trophy in his hands clinks against his green karate belt, and he bops his head to the music still blasting through the speakers. He won second place for his age group, managing to roundhouse kick his opponent right off the mat, and he can’t wait to show it off to Mama! 

He perks up when he sees Shiro in the crowd, making sure to wave goodbye to his instructor so she won't worry about him disappearing before skidding over to his step-brother. “Shiro! Where’s Mama?” 

Shiro smiles, but something’s off about it; it’s too weak, weak and shivering. “Krolia, um…Keith, she couldn’t make it.”

Time stills. 

“What?” Keith asks hoarsely. 

Shiro slowly crouches down next to him, resting his hands on Keith’s trembling shoulders. “Look, she really wanted to come! But Dad’s car broke down and she needed to go pick him up.” He sighs, squeezing Keith’s shoulders. “You did a fantastic job though, kiddo, I was watching the whole time. Why don’t we go get some ice cream to celebrate?” 

Keith stares at his trophy, swallowing heavily. “No, I wanna go home.” 

“Are you sur-” 

He rips himself out of Shiro’s touch, clinging to his trophy like a security blanket. “Let’s go.” He orders harshly, stomping off with his chest aching something fierce.

* * *

A couple of weeks into their friendship, Lance takes him to the small fishing hut he saw on the first day and into the dark and cobweb filled room. Instead of fishing supplies like he expected, Keith stops in the entryway at the sight of old and bug infested furniture, couches and beds falling apart at the seams while the floors and walls sag around them. 

Lance watches him from the ever still water, swinging his arms by his sides as he walks aimless circles in the knee-length water. “That used to be my home.” He hums, resting a loving hand on the splintering pole supporting the house above the water. “But, well, it’s all coming down now. No one's taken care of it for a long, long time.” 

Keith shivers. 

He carefully climbs down the rotting steps, treading back into the water towards Lance’s side. “That’s…really lonely.” He whispers in the silence of the woods. Even the trees have stilled their movements, like they're waiting for Lance to breath back in before they can exhale. 

Lance jerks his head to the side, like a puppet on a string. “Lonely, huh?” He says quietly, like it's something he always thought but never dared to say aloud, and and they don’t say anything more about it for the rest of Keith's visit. 

* * *

On the dining room table, nearly covering the entire piece of wood, is Shiro’s midterm project. Keith glares at it while he eats his bowl of cereal standing up, because he can’t eat on the couch, but he also can’t eat at the table without putting his bowl on the still wet stretch of paper. It’s a giant map of the town, or Shiro and his partner Matt’s take on it. He didn’t really catch most of it, more intent on eating dinner as fast as possible and running back to his room. 

Shiro yawns as he steps into the kitchen, ruffling his hair as he passes by to get his own bowl of Lucky Charms. “You like?” He sleepily asks. 

“No.” Keith petulantly replies, shoving another spoonful in his mouth. It’s pretty cool, but he would rather die than admit that. 

Shiro snorts, shaking his head as he pours in his milk. “Whatever you say.” He says simply, taking his own bowl and standing right next to Keith. “I think we did a pretty good job.”

Keith pointedly turns his head away, masterfully avoiding all the oats and instead shoveling seven marshmallows in his mouth at once. “I could have done it better.” He garbles out. 

His step-brother’s face contorts, like he’s fighting off a laugh. “I’m sure.” Shiro struggles to spit out, voice cracking loudly. 

Taking a step forward, Keith eyes the doodle of their house. Part of the project was to put pictures into it, he remembers, but Shiro got off easy because they just moved here. The only picture is Mama and Daiki’s wedding, both of their parents smiling brightly with the two boys scowling by their sides at the cameraman. 

He scowls, glancing away, but a bright pop of blue draws his eyes back. There, behind the red roof, are the trees Matt drew, and a small sliver of blue. A lake. 

“What’s that?” He points, and Shiro steps up right next to him, ignoring Keith’s shoulders rising up. 

“Oh, that?” Shiro blinks. “I don’t know much either, just that google maps said that there was a waterhole somewhere in all those trees.” He eyes Keith considerably, which only makes Keith’s hackles rise up. “Can you swim?” 

Papa was supposed to teach him how to swim without his floaties last summer, at the community pool their entire extended family threw parties at almost every free day in when the heat was at it's worst. 

“Yes!” Keith snaps, lying through his teeth. “‘M going out to play now.” 

Shiro hesitates behind him, but in the end, he doesn’t say a word when Keith puts his bowl in the sink and slips out the backdoor, running towards the lake where Lance awaits him with another smile. 

* * *

One afternoon in the sun they lay in the shoreline, shoulders pressed together as they stare up at the clouds overhead. But Keith’s long since forgotten about guessing shapes, lost in thought, until Lance nudges at his stomach with a cold finger. “Whatcha thinking about?” Lance chirps cheerfully, propping himself up with one hand under his cheek. 

Keith sighs, throwing his arms out. “I told you how my Mama married Daiki after my Papa died?” He explains, waiting for Lance to nod. “Why…why did she do that?” _Was it because of me_ , goes unsaid. 

Lance scoots forward, leaning over him and blocking the sun. His entire face is shadowed, expression lost in the darkness as he cups Keith’s face. His hands are freezing, like ice liquefied, and Keith starts shivering almost immediately. 

“Oh, baby,” he croons to Keith, voice rough. “She doesn’t love you anymore.” 

Instantly, he’s shaking his head, but Lance yanks him back by his hair, stilling him abruptly. “She doesn’t want you anymore. She wants a new family, a _better_ one. You’re just in the way -”

Keith shoves him back, gagging as soon as Lance falls off of him and into the water with a loud splash. “Shut up!” He yells angrily, his eyes burning as he scrambles to his feet, layer of caked off mud falling off of him. Lance watches him from the water passively, eyes cool even as Keith turns on his heel and grabs his jacket and shoes, sprinting barefoot back to his house. 

The shivers don’t stop even when he’s back in bed, safe under his comforters, still feeling like Lance is watching him with those dead, cold eyes of his. 

* * *

He doesn’t go visit Lance for the rest of the week. Keith stays in his room, fixing the pillow fort in the corner until he can cram himself into it, rereading Corduroy over and over and over again. 

“ _I've spent too much already. Besides, he doesn't look new. He's lost the button to one of his shoulder straps._ ” Keith mumbles softly, tracing the lines over and over again. But Keith isn’t missing something as fixable as a button, but something far more permanent. 

Near the end of the week, he stumbles his way back from using the bathroom past his bedtime down the carpeted hallway in socked feet, when he hears it. 

“ - I just don’t know what to do.” Mama’s whispers, his footsteps crawling to a stop, inches away from the doorway into the dimly lit kitchen. “Keith just isn’t getting along with either Daiki or Takashi. I’ve tried everything I can think of, but he takes everything _so_ seriously.” 

There’s a pause that Keith recognizes as her being on the phone, before she continues. “I know, I know. Ever since Tex died, he’s just been sensitive to every little thing. I thought if we moved out of that city with so many memories, he could finally move on, but he’s only gotten more and more secluded.” A sigh. “Maybe he should go live with Aunt Acxa for a bit. He loves her to death, and I think some time away might help.” 

Water drips down Keith’s face silently, hitting the carpet as soundless little drops. He shuffles his way back to his room, his hand trailing against the wall as he silently tiptoes into his room, closing the door behind him. 

Then he hefts open the window and makes a run for it. 

He burst out the treeline, skidding on the shoreline and landing harshly on his muddy hands and knees, gasping for breath. Lance is soundless as he moves through the water towards him, looming above him with gentle eyes and dripping hair. “Oh, _Keith_.” 

Keith shakes apart, holding himself like he can keep the ache in his chest at bay if he just holds himself rigid enough. “Mama - Mama said, said that she’s sending me away, that she, that she doesn’t -” He moans lowly, falling forward, only to be caught against a stiff shirt. 

Lance envelopes him in his arms, resting his cheek on the top of his head. “It’s so terrible when people no longer love us.” He coos lovingly, stroking Keith’s long hair back. Keith bites his lip, trying to shake his head, but Lance holds on tighter to him, tighter and tighter until his fingernails dig into Keith’s skin. “I know, I know. You’re all alone in this big world, with no one who loves you or cares about you.” 

“That’s not…” Keith trails off. Not true? But Daiki and Shiro don’t care about him, and Mama is always so busy with her new family. Keith doesn’t fit in anywhere. 

A sob catches him by surprise, his face crumbling as he desperately clings to Lance’s shirt, inhaling the rancid smell of lakewater and something rotting. “That’s okay,” Lance shushes him, pressing an affectionate kiss to the top of his head, but all Keith feels is mud trickling down the nape of his neck. “I love you; I care about you more than anyone else in the world. You don’t need anyone other than me.” 

“You love me?” He croaks into the rough fabric, his bones creaking as Lance wrings the breath out of him. “Really?” 

“More than anything,” Lance promises sincerely, and Keith believes him. 

* * *

Christmas comes and passes, and Keith only watches with dull eyes as Mama and Daiki and Shiro exchange presents. He gets a baseball glove from Daiki, though he hates the game, and paints from Shiro, which he appreciates marginally more. 

Mama gets him a telescope, but the excitement of the gift is dulled when he knows she’s planning on shipping him out to Aunt Acxa before the new semester. All he can muster is a small thanks averting his eyes. 

He ignores them trading glances over his head, more focused on the weaving dots on his pajamas, fading in and out of sight. 

While Mama and Daiki make Christmas dinner for their extended relatives, he’s shooed to Shiro’s room with poorly concealed wishes for them to get along. They sit in silence for several long moments, the quiet unnerving even when Shiro busies himself on his phone and Keith on biting his fingernails down to the quick. 

His eyes wander over to the giant map Shiro and Matt made, now hung on the wall over his bed. There’s more photographs he realizes dimly, and Keith’s eyebrows furrow as he slowly sits up. The photographs are right next to Lance’s lake. 

“It was for extra credit,” Shiro’s voice startles him, and he glances over his shoulder to his step-brother turning off his phone and climbing to his knees next to Keith. “We got full points, but Matt insisted anyway. We were supposed to find a not so well known area and research any documentation on it, and your question about the lake made me curious.” 

He thumbs at an old black and white print. “It used to belong to the McClain family; they had a house right on the lake apparently, but they abandoned it something like thirty years ago for no apparent reason.” Shiro pulls down a separate photograph for Keith to hold in his shaking hands. “Here’s the whole family: Juana McClain, her husband Thomas, and their five kids; Veronica, Luis, Marco, Rachel, and Lance.” 

A part of him always knew, but seeing Lance's smiling picture only solidifies the pit in his stomach. He knew about it, but he didn't know about _this_. 

Shiro pauses, blinking down at him. “You need to puke? You're looking a little queasy there, bud.” 

Keith hands back the photograph, hiding his shaking hands by clenching them into trembling fists. “I’m fine,” he lies quietly, burying his face into his knees. Mercifully, Shiro is silent until the first of their many guests arrive, and no one pays attention to sullen Keith in the corner all alone. No one ever does. 

* * *

He stays away from the lake again, even though he desperately wants to take comfort in Lance’s arms. Keith hides in his room for a bit, but he’s always been an active kid and the walls are too tight around him, closing in more and more every second, blue eyes watching his every move and waiting to pick him apart like a fish in a trap. 

Underneath a single blanket, he tucks himself away from everything, desperately rereading Corduroy over and over and over again, the last gift from his Papa to him. He wants to be that stuffed bear, finding love even while missing a button and for that love to fix everything wrong with him. He doesn’t want to be himself anymore. 

He wants to disappear. 

“ _You must be a friend, said Corduroy. I've always wanted a friend._ ” Keith repeats to himself over and over and over again, the words losing meaning in his head until it all turns to slush. 

Everything’s a mess. 

“I love you, Takashi.” Mama says quietly once to Shiro when Keith is hiding in the corner between the wall and the TV stand, stiffing his tears until he's just another part of the ever silent world. 

Shiro sniffs, and Keith clasps his hands over his ears to block out the next words, but he still hears them anyhow. “I love you too, Mom.” 

Keith rocks to himself in the corner of the dining room, drawing picture after picture of Lance's ever present smile, of the looking glass water and his Papa burning to death in a house fire he couldn't stop. Daiki picks one of the latter ones up, his eyes concerned as he suggests that Keith find another hobby, and he flees the room before he bites off the man's hand. 

He drags himself back in the living room, only to find Shiro holding his Corduroy book in his hands and a dark puddle in their brand new carpet at his feet. The Corduroy book that’s now covered in Shiro’s diet coke, pages stained and ripped. 

Keith's Corduroy book. Papa's laugh when Keith complained that he was too big for when he dug it out of the back of his bookshelf, crouching down to show him their signatures when Keith's handwriting was just a scribble. Promising to love Keith forever, no matter what, but he _lied_ , they all lie in the end - 

“I’m _so_ sorry -” Shiro begins, but Keith’s already screeching, flinging himself at his step-brother and punching his stomach as hard as he can. 

“I hate you!” Keith howls, tears streaming down his face as he scratches and bites and slaps whatever he can. “I hate you so much! Go back to your own family, get out! Get out get out get out!” 

Big hands, bigger than Shiro’s warm ones, pull him away, and then Mama is glaring at _Keith_. “Apologize!” She snaps at him, and Keith’s wet eyes widen. “Apologize to your brother right now!” 

Keith screams as loud as loud as he can, stomping on Mama’s foot and struggling out of her arms. “He’s not my brother! I want Papa back, give Papa back already, I hate this place so much, I hate you Mama I hate you I hate you -” 

Mama’s hand rears back, and Keith’s shocked into silence as she slaps him right across the face. 

In fact, the house house goes silent, everyone frozen in time as Keith slowly reaches up and touches his tender cheek. She…hit him?

“Krolia…” Shiro finally whispers, and her fierce glare breaks into horrified tears, violet eyes drifting to her own hand like it's something alien to her. 

“I…” Mama retches, stumbling back until her back hits the wall, both Shiro and Daiki standing in tense silence on opposite sides of the room. “Baby, I’m -” 

Keith spins on his heel, sobbing loudly as he darts out of the room under Daiki’s arm and into his bedroom, slamming the door shut behind him. He pushes up his window, ignoring the knock on the door behind him as he flings himself onto the muddy grass outside, tearing through it like the wild thing that he is towards the only safety he knows. 

Lance awaits him in the center of the lake, treading water lazily as he stares up at the stars overhead. “Welcome back,” he sing-songs with a note of anger in his voice, tipping his head back to stare at Keith coldly. “Why were you gone for so long?” 

Keith shivers. 

Panting for breath, he holds his stinging cheek as he stares at the crystalline water, glowing under the moonlight. “You lied to me,” he murmurs. 

Lance's face settles into one of annoyed realization, bobbing slowly in the water and walking through it like it’s air. “About me being dead? No, I never lied to you. I didn’t tell you the truth, but I never lied to you. I would never do that to you Keith, I love you too much for that.”

 _You’re lying, you’re lying_. Keith wants to scream it, but his voice feels caught in his throat as Lance arises from the lake, water shedding effortlessly off of his eternally dry clothes.

The ghost holds out his hands, and Keith is helpless but to take it, following after him step by step into the water. “This was our vacation home the entire family owned. I grew up playing on the shores with my siblings.” Water splashes against his calves. “One day, me and Veronica were out rowing this little boat we had. We got into this stupid little argument, you know? And the next thing I knew, she hit me over the head with her paddle.” 

Like Mama’s hand striking against his cheek. 

Lance laughs, but it’s so removed from his usual chiming one, this one as thick and vicious as a riptide. “I was such a good swimmer, you know? But one hit, and then the next thing I knew I was floating at the bottom of the lake. They abandoned me as soon as they saw me come back, they left me for dead _again_.” His voice spikes in true anger, and Keith flinches at the snarl twisting up his face.

At his flinch, Lance calms down, nuzzling Keith's hair like he actually cares about him as the water rises to his thighs. “I thought I would be alone forever, but then you came along. One unloved boy to another.” 

He removes one hand to gently cup Keith’s cheek, gently guiding them back one step at a time. The water is at his waist now, and Keith shakily inhales at how every step becomes slower than the last. “I was alone, for so, _so_ long, and then I met you.” 

“You lied.” Keith gasps, tugging his hands back, but Lance only yanks him closer, water soaking his shirt up to his chest. “You lied, you lied, _you lied_.”

“No,” Lance murmurs to Keith, but he’s already shaking his head desperately, heels skidding in the mud. 

“You’re, you’re,” Tears drip past his eyes, the grip around his wrist as tight as a noose as Lance pulls him up against his chest, his face colliding with the scratchy fabric even as water sloshes up to his neck.“You’re an _adult_.” 

Lance isn’t nine. The picture on Shiro’s wall showed the entire McClain family, Lance's smiling face frozen in time with as someone around Shiro's age, maybe even older. 

The ghost heaves a sigh against the top of his head. “I hoped you wouldn’t find out about that.” He mumbles to himself as Keith tips his head up, standing on his tippy toes as the water climbs up to his chin. “Oh well. I wasn’t that old anyhow, I would hardly call myself an _adult_.” He laughs again, hands sliding down Keith’s wrists to link around his lower back. “You’ll forgive me sooner or later, right? That’s what friends do.”

Friends are shared smiles and laughs. Friends are someone you can trust and a hand at your back and a hug when you're sad. Friends are sowing a button on someone’s overalls with the words _I like you the way you are, but you'll be more comfortable with your shoulder strap fastened._

This isn't what friends are.

“My lovely, lonely little Keith.” Lance kisses his forehead fondly. “Take a deep breath. Or don’t.” 

And the two of them fall back into the water. 

Keith shoves against Lance’s shoulders, kicking his legs furiously as they sink, deeper and deeper and deeper. The lakewater burns his eyes, Lance’s form blurring into a kaleidoscope of dark greens and blues, blending into the water pressing down on them even as his hands stay a death grip around Keith. 

He’s going to drown. Lance is going to drown him. 

“ _Stop!_ ” Keith tries to yell, but only bubbles escape his mouth. His throat pulses to the beat of his heart, his lungs screaming for air. Lance shushes him gently, but his touch feels like slimy seaweed as he drags him down down down and Keith can’t think straight he’s swallowing water and it burns Mama it burns please Mama please save him Daiki please Papa Papa come home he’s sorry he’s a bad boy please someone please -

Something grabs the back of his hood, and he’s yanked straight out of Lance’s arms towards the light faintly glimmering above. Warm arms wrap around his waist, kicking them up away from Lance’s sinking form, and they surface within moments. 

Keith coughs loudly, his entire body shuddering as his head is laid against someone’s broad shoulders. For a moment, he thinks it’s Papa, before his ears finally pop and he hears them. “ - buddy, oh god, are you okay? Keith? Can you hear me? It’s okay, I got you -” 

It’s Shiro. 

Crying silently, he gasps out wet breathes, lakewater spilling out of his mouth. “S-Shiro,” he garbles. “S-S-Shiro, help -”

Lance’s hand grabs his ankle, and he’s yanked back below the surface. 

Keith sputters, his arms reaching up towards where Shiro is diving after him, his grey eyes widening as Lance drags him down. Glancing down, Keith feebly kicks his leg in sheer terror, trying to claw his way back to Shiro. 

Lance barely even looks human, his form distorting horribly between ages. He’s nine just like Keith, he’s an adult with glowing eyes like a shark, he’s a monster with too many rows of teeth and pointed nails drawing blood. _ＧＩＶＥ ＨＩＭ ＢＡＣＫ_ He hisses, climbing his way up Keith’s leg, but Shiro grabs Keith’s flailing hand, trying to drag him back towards the surface once more. _ＬＥＡＶＥ ＵＳ ＡＬＯＮＥ_

Keith sobs, feeling himself being pulled away despite Shiro’s best efforts. He clings on tighter to Shiro’s hand, but Lance is the water itself, tugging him down to it’s icy depths, and he feels his heart break in his chest. He doesn’t want to die. 

He doesn’t want to die. 

Keith closes his eyes for a moment, bubbles streaming out of his nose and mouth, before he shifts in the water and slams the heel of his sneaker right into Lance’ face. 

Lance _howls_ , his grip loosening, but it’s enough for Shiro to wrap an arm around his waist and boost them back up the surface. When they break for air, Shiro doesn’t waste any time diving towards shore, an arm protectively holding Keith against his chest. 

Water ices around them, the once warm water frosting over within moments as Shiro’s feet catch ground. Keith glances over Shiro’s shoulder with wet eyelashes, and he gags at the rotten corpse emerging from the water mere feet behind them, skin waterlogged and sagging. 

_ＨＥ＇Ｓ ＭＩＮＥ_ Lance screeches like a tsunami hitting shore, tearing after them. His peeling fingers reach out for the glimpse of Keith over Shiro’s shoulder, and the nine year old shrieks in terror. 

They catch on his hair, and Keith weeps at the pain shooting through his scalp and the once pretty blue eyes boring into his red-rimmed ones, nothing more than rotting holes in the adult’s head. _ＹＯＵ＇ＲＥ_ **_ＭＩＮＥ_ **

Shiro spins, gritting his teeth as they splash in the knee-length water and drawing his other fist back. Lance flinches away, but it’s enough for his fingers to slip free, and Shiro opens his fist, the sizable rock hidden between his fingers flying through the air and socking Lance right in the empty eye hole. 

“Leave,” Shiro rasps hoarsely, panting for breath but glaring fiercely enough to have Keith crying anew. “My _brother_ alone!” 

The teenager turns on his heel, racing towards the shoreline, and Lance _screams_ behind them. _ＣＯＭＥ ＢＡＣＫ_ He screeches, falling to his hands and knees and crawling desperately towards them. _ＫＥＩＴＨ，ＳＴＡＹ ＷＩＴＨ ＭＥ_

Keith clings tighter to Shiro’s neck, peering at his once best friend fall apart the closer they get to safety, the skin slogging off his bones as he tears up the mud in his haste to get to them. _ＫＥＩＴＨ，Ｉ ＣＡＮ＇Ｔ ＢＥ ＡＬＯＮＥ ＡＧＡＩＮ_ He pleads, phalanges reaching out for Keith longingly.

Ankle-length water splashes against Shiro’s sopping wet jeans as he makes the final sprint towards safety, not once letting his grip of Keith loosen. _ＫＥＩＴＨ,_ Lance sobs, his movements slowing down. _ＫＥＩＴＨ Ｉ ＬＯＶＥ ＹＯＵ Ｉ ＬＯＶＥ ＹＯＵ Ｉ ＬＯＶＥ ＹＯＵ_

Shiro holds him tighter, and as one, they hit the shoreline. 

Lance collapses behind them in the shallow water like a house of cards, just a pile of loose, twitching bones. _Ｉ＇ＬＬ ＮＥＶＥＲ ＬＥＴ ＹＯＵ ＧＯ_ He promises, his voice flickering, before he finally goes still. 

“Oh god, oh fuck,” Shiro mutters, sounding sick, before placing a hand gently over Keith’s head. “Let’s go home now, okay?” 

* * *

Keith shivers in bed that night, wrapping his blanket around himself. Shiro, in his nest of blankets on the floor of Keith’s bedroom, groans in his sleep and rubs his face against his pillow. The same one he pulled out of Keith’s fort weeks ago, Keith realizes dimly. 

He’s tuckered out, not only from the entire thing with… But also the conversation Mama sat him down at the table for. She said sorry, many times really, but mostly they just talked about Papa. 

Resting a hand over his chest, he closes his eyes tightly and just listens to the sound of his heart pounding away in his chest. The world is still moving around him; it’s not frozen still, not anymore. Lance can’t leave the lake. 

It still feels like a betrayal. 

Rolling over, he opens his eyes and feels his pounding heart slow down at Shiro sleeping on the floor, a protective guardian to keep Keith’s nightmares away. 

Okay, he can kinda admit that Shiro’s not half bad. He did save Keith from being killed, after all. 

His best friend, who wasn't really a friend in the end, who tried to _drown_ him. He shivers again. 

A scraping sound against the window as him whipping his head around, but there’s nothing there. “You’re being stupid, Keith.” He mutters to himself, clinging to his blanket like he’s a baby. He's not a baby, he's not a baby, he's - 

Movement out of the corner of his eyes has him glancing back towards the window, yet the only shadows he can make out are the branches crawling across the glass pane. There's nothing there, he tells himself, exhaling cold fog like a dragon from the myths. 

The world is quiet. 

Slowly, the branches slide down his window, resting on the windowsill with terrifying silence. Then, inch by inch, they start to slide his window up, blue eyes gleaming at him from the darkness of his backyard, leaving a trail of lakewater and mud behind him. 

“Hello,” Lance sing-songs, his grin splitting at the seams. Blood runs down his chin, pooling against the windowsill like rain as his nails click against his bedroom walls, reaching out towards Keith, always Keith. They'll never let him go. “Won’t you be my friend?”

Keith shivers.   
  
  
  



End file.
